In this week’s veg boxes …

A first appearance for our own Camel CSA Jerusalem artichokes.  Contrarily, they’re neither artichoke nor from Jerusalem but a sunflower, originally named girasole after the Italian for sunflower and that name morphed into Jerusalem. Their supposed similarity in taste to artichoke gave them the rest of their name.

In the small boxes:

* onions (Camel CSA)
* Jerusalem artichokes (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)

Medium boxes also have:

* parsnips
ball-headed cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

* = grown to organic principles

Share:

• 

We’ve outsmarted them!

It’s doing the trick.  The new protective mesh is keeping the voracious rabbits off our spring greens.

They’ve been hopping all over it and have left droppings everywhere, but they haven’t been able to find a way underneath.

This expensive mesh is proving to be a worthwhile investment. The rabbits can’t chew holes in it, it doesn’t disintegrate and it lasts for years – unlike fleece.

The growing team has managed at long last to plant several rows of garlic sets and sow some broad beans for overwintering. We’re hoping these will give us an early crop next year.

All being well, the rabbits won’t touch the garlic (although earlier in the year they did have a gnaw at some of the onions).

Thanks to expert growers Jane, Jeremy and Mark plus regular Sunday team members Kitty, Mark, Mike H and Mike S.

Share:

• 

More and bigger helpings

The extra potatoes in our shares are put there in direct response to a plea from Camel CSA members.  Standard boxes contain 2.5 kg of Wilja spuds this week and there are 1.5 kg in the small boxes.

Our picking and packing volunteers had to dodge some sharp, heavy showers as they picked, dug, sorted and weighed the veg on Friday.  The team’s now rigged up some rudimentary shelter to help them escape the worst of Cornwall’s wild autumn equinoxal weather.

Picking and packing supremo Trish explains:

“We’ve been loaned a gazebo which we put up over the sorting area.  We’re hoping it’ll stay put and not take off once we put a couple of ties into the wall.

 

“It was good to stay reasonably dry while doing the packing and it meant we could leave the boxes under cover at the end.”

Friday’s band of helpers alongside Trish were Penny and Robert, Mike H, Henrietta and Jennie M.

The growing team still have broad beans to sow and garlic sets to plant which we hope (weather permitting!) to get finished this Sunday.  See you then.

Share:

• 

Seasonal recipe No 19 – Pasta with sweet leeks and mascarpone

Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chef cookbook. Naturally Jamie makes his own pasta – pappardelle (broad, wavy-edged pasta) – but shop-bought tagliatelle or linguine will work just as well for this simple dish.

Serves 4

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 small knob of butter
1 tbsp olive oil
4 medium leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced at an angle
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper
200g mascarpone
455g pasta
1 handful grated parmesan cheese

Method
Put the butter and olive oil into a semi-hot, thick-bottomed pan, add the leeks and gardlic, with a -pinch of salt, and gently sweat, without colouring, for about 5-10 minutes with a lid on, until the leeks are soft and sweet. Add the mascarpone. Let this gently melt into the leeks, creating a semi-thick sauce. Taste for seasoning.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in boiling, salted water until al dente. Toss gently in the sauce (if it seems slightly thick, add a little of the cooking water from the pasta). The sauce should perfectly coat the pasta. Serve sprinkled generously with parmesan.

Share:

• 

Spuds you like …

We’re increasing the quantity of potatoes in this week’s veg boxes. Find out more about the different varieties – this week’s are Wilja – and what to do with them at the Potato Council website.

In the small boxes this week there’ll be:
* onions (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
Wilja potatoes (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)
* hot and spicy salad bag (Jane Mellowship)
broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

Medium boxes also have:
kale (Rest Harrow Farm)
* mixed peppers (small ones hot, larger ones sweet) (Jeremy Brown)
* sprouts (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Share:

• 

Another media mention

We’ve had another mention in the Western Morning News – this time in its Woman section.

WMN Woman’s editor Gillian Molesworth, herself an active Camel CSA member, reveals how she tried to grow vegetables on her own and lost heart.  So she fully appreciates what we do:

“I highly recommend it.  You get the gardener’s satisfaction of digging and weeding and picking … and you get to take home a weekly vegetable box that you didn’t have to grow all yourself.

You get to eat seasonally and locally, and even if there’s a permanent cloud sitting overhead waiting to rain on you when you start digging up carrots, at least you can complain about it to some fellow volunteers, instead of suffering in lonesome silence.

Finding the fun in vegetables – Western Morning News - WMN2 - Woman 30-10-09

Share:

• 

Looking ahead to spring

The temperatures may be falling and the nights drawing in, but Camel Community Supported Agriculture is already looking forward to next year’s seasonal vegetable boxes.

Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:

“On Sunday we were very happy to get our spring greens finally in the ground and covered with a special new protective mesh, safe from any would-be nibblers! 

“Conditions were far from perfect, very muddy and windy, so we were content to weed creeping thistle from the onion bed and leave it at that.”

Thanks to expert growers Jeremy Brown and Jane Mellowship. aided by Kitty, Mike H and Mike S.

The heavy overnight rain and galeforce winds made the ground too wet to plant the garlic sets and broad bean seeds that we intend to overwinter for an early crop next year.  That’ll be done this coming Sunday, weather permitting.

Supplies

Our packing team continue to do wonders on Friday mornings digging and picking and weighing produce. They fill more than 20 veg boxes each week in the short space of two hours.

Grateful thanks to stalwarts Trish, Caroline, Penny, Robert, and Gillian and her two children Sophie and Freddie. 

Camel CSA’s own supplies continue to be supplemented by a wide variety of  organic veg from our expert growers Jeremy Brown, Jane Mellowship and Mark Norman. 

Some high-quality, non-organically grown vegetables are coming from local suppliers.  James Mutton at Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn is providing potatoes.  We’re also buying in regular supplies of freshly-harvested brassicas and leeks from Richard Hore at Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick.
.

Share:

•